


straight through the heart

by supersapphics



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25633729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersapphics/pseuds/supersapphics
Summary: Aline is an assassin, and she kills the bad guys. Because she's one of the good ones.Then she's instructed to kill a woman named Helen, which proves to be a problem. Why? Because Helen seems like a wonderful person, and Aline can't justify doing anything to hurt her. Which makes no sense, because Aline is on the side of the good guys, and Helen is on the side of the bad....right?
Relationships: Helen Blackthorn/Aline Penhallow
Kudos: 5





	straight through the heart

**Author's Note:**

> this is a re-upload from my previous account of the same name.

“Here’s your next assignment, Agent.”

By now Aline has learned not to react when her mom refers to her by title instead of name. Jia treats her as an employee, not a daughter – she always as, and Aline is used to it at this point.

Aline opens the file and looks down at the provided photo. The picture shows her a pretty young woman, with long, dark blonde hair and a warm smile. She doesn’t look like she’s dangerous – she looks like the type of person who would stop and help you pick up your books if you dropped them.

But appearances can be deceiving. Aline may technically be an assassin, but her job is to take out the bad guys – and if this woman, this Helen Blackthorn, is on the list, then that must mean she’s bad news.

Aline flips to the next page and scans through the target’s personal information, which will help her track Helen down and get close to her. “Does the client have preferences on method?” she asks, without looking up. It’s not mentioned in the file, but maybe it had been communicated to her mother later on.

“The client wants her dead,” Jia says sharply, and Aline winces inwardly. She should have known better to have asked questions. If it wasn’t mentioned in the file, that meant it was up to her, and that meant she was wasting time bothering Jia with questions.

“You’re expected back within 24 hours, starting at precisely 1800 hours,” Jia continues.

Aline glances at the nearest clock out of the corner of her eye. It’s 17:58. That means her mother will continue talking for another two minutes exactly, and then she’ll be dismissed and sent out to kill. Without a goodbye kiss on the cheek, of course.

“You can choose one weapon to bring with you. Report directly to me when you return for your mission debriefing. That’s all.” Jia turns around and walks away, without a single glance over her shoulder, not that Aline was expecting her to.

She leaves the briefing room and heads down the hallway to the weapons room. She only has to scan the selection for a few moments before deciding what gun she’ll bring along with her. After that, she stops by the communications room to shred the file still clutched in her left hand. She’d memorized the information mere seconds after reading it, just like she’d been trained to do, and now there’s no longer a purpose for it.

Within minutes she’s left headquarters behind and boarded the subway headed toward Helen’s favorite restaurant. It’s a small, quaint little French place, the type of establishment where, if you come in one more than once, the staff memorizes your name. The file had stated that Helen ate there every Friday night at 6 PM, and best of all, that she usually ate alone.

“Do you have a reservation, miss?” the maître d’ asks when she approaches the podium. This place isn’t very fancy, but it’s very popular (according to Aline’s quick Google search on the subway), and therefore usually pretty full.

“I’m meeting someone,” Aline lies smoothly. “Ms. Helen Blackthorn, who has a standing reservation.”

“Excellent, miss. Henri, could you please take our guest to Ms. Blackthorn’s table?”

Henri spins on his heel and leads her further inside the restaurant. Aline keeps close on his heels, until her target comes into view. Helen is sitting at a corner table, with her back to the wall – or rather, with her back to the gently crackling fireplace built into the wall. It’s smart, Aline acknowledges. No one can sneak up behind her this way. But sneaking up on her hadn’t been in Aline’s plan.

“Ms. Blackthorn, you have a guest,” Henri announces.

Helen looks up, clearly surprised. Her eyes meet Aline’s and there’s a moment where they just stare at one another. Aline shifts her weight to the other foot, aware that there’s a _spark_ and not sure what to do about it. She hadn’t been expecting that; it’s never happened before. Maybe Helen’s photo in the file really had been misleading.

“I’m sorry if I got the wrong day?” Aline says, making her voice softer and more timid than it’s ever been before. “We did say the 25th, right?”

Helen opens her mouth and closes it, very visibly puzzled, but then she smiles, warm and inviting, and indicates the empty chair next to her. “Hi. It’s so nice to meet you in person finally.”

Aline sinks into the seat and waits as Henri bows gracefully and walks away. As soon as he’s out of earshot, she flashes Helen a grateful smile and wait to see how the other woman will react. She’d been guessing, based on Helen’s warm smile in her photo, that Helen wouldn’t leave her hanging. Helen would either invite Aline to sit down because she was too nice to say no and embarrass her, or because she thought Aline was in trouble and needed help.

Essentially, nice people were easy to manipulate.

Wait. Helen wasn’t nice. She was a bad person, which is why Aline had been hired to kill her. Because she worked for the good guys.

“We didn’t really meet online, did we?” Helen asks.

Aline shakes her head and gives a bashful little laugh. “No. Thank you for not ratting me out to Henri, though.”

“You’re welcome. So what’s going on? Did you come in here to escape someone, or…are you just really hungry and wanted a free meal courtesy of me?”

Aline laughs again, except this time it’s genuine. She can’t believe her target is so funny. Then she realizes the way she’s thinking. What is wrong with her?

It’s because Helen doesn’t seem like her usual target. Aline is 24 and she’s been killing professionally since she was 18, but she’d been groomed for it for as long as she can remember. She’d been taught since childhood that she was making the world a better place by taking out the bad people in it.

Aline could always tell that the person she’d been hired to kill was a bad person. She could tell the second she locked eyes with them in their photo, and even if she had any doubts, they vanished the second she interacted with them for the first time. She could sense the slime oozing off of them.

Her slime detector wasn’t going off now.

“Is it ok if I say neither? I promise it’s nothing bad.” Aline flashes Helen a smile which Hele immediately returns.

“Well, you’re the best looking person who’s ever sat across from me at this table, so I don’t mind,” Helen replies.

Aline stares. Is Helen flirting with her? Is her _target_ flirting with her?

“I recommend the escargot, by the way,” Helen says, completely straight faced.

“Um.” Aline bites her bottom lip, not sure how to respond.

“Just kidding.” Helen grins at her. “Quiche lorraine is my personal favorite.”

“That sounds good. I think I’ll take that too. And what wine do you recommend?”

Helen’s grin widens. “You can order whatever wine you want. You don’t even have to order wine if you don’t mind.”

“I thought maybe it was a requirement or something. This place is so…French. If I order a Sprite will they kick me out or something?” She says the last sentence in a stage whisper that makes Helen giggle. Aline feels a smile spreading across her own face.

“So you’re a nonprofit lawyer?” Aline asks as she takes a sip of her Sprite.

“Yes, specializing in immigration law. My firm works to protect immigrants, especially women and children.”

“That’s really impressive,” Aline says. “Do you enjoy the work?”

“Very much, although it can be emotionally draining at times. What about you?”

“I have a boring government job,” Aline answers, waving her hand dismissively. “You don’t want to hear about it.”

“Why not? This is a first date, isn’t it? The point is for us to learn about each other. Especially since I’m hoping we’ll be having a second date.”

“A second date,” Aline repeats, not sure she’s hearing correctly. Besides the lie about the government job, she’s actually been completely honest with Helen and acted like herself. Which is why she finds it so surprising that Helen likes her. Not many people know the real her. Which is intentional, of course, considering her job. But she hadn’t realized how much she was craving someone to know the real her until now. It’s throwing her off guard.

“Followed by a third,” Helen confirms.

“That sounds great,” Aline says, and rests her hand on the table in invitation. Helen slides her hand across the table and intertwines their fingers.

There’s nothing. She’s been looking for hours, and she can’t find anything.

After dinner, she and Helen had gone to a hotel. It didn’t actually make much sense, her trying to protect Helen, because the people she worked for would find out where Helen lived, no matter what Aline did. But she wasn’t going to lead them to Helen’s home herself.

So she made up some excuse – she can’t even remember what it is now – about why they should go to a hotel instead of Helen’s apartment, and Helen had agreed with no questions asked.

Their night together had been amazing, and after Helen had fallen asleep, Aline had honestly wanted nothing more than to curl up next to her and close her eyes. But she couldn’t do that until she _knew._

So she’d taken Helen’s phone out of her bag and done every search she could think of. But she can’t find any sign, any indication, that Helen is someone worth killing. She only sees evidence that Helen is a wonderful person and deserves nothing but the best.

She sighs and returns Helen’s phone to her purse before climbing back into bed. Why on earth would the organization that raised her and made her into who she was order her to kill someone like Helen? True, it was a client who created the kill order, not her organization itself, but why would her organization accept it?

“Aline?” Helen murmurs, her eyes still closed. “You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just got up to get a drink of water.”

“You coming back to bed?”

“Yeah, I’m right here.” Aline scoots closer to Helen and rests her head against Helen’s shoulder. Helen releases a happy sigh and within seconds she’s asleep again. Aline stays awake, watching her sleep and trying to figure out what she’s going to do.

“You’re back early,” Jia says, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Yes.” Aline comes to a stop in front of her mother’s desk, hands behind her back.

“You’re ready for your debriefing?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“The mission has been completed and you have proof for the client?”

“No ma’am.”

In any other situation, the stunned look on Jia’s face would have been comical.

“ _No_? You’re returning for a debriefing without having completed the mission? Agent Penhallow, this is unprecedented. Explain yourself immediately!”

“I couldn’t find any reason to kill her, ma’am.”

“A _reason_? The reason is that you were hired to do this, Agent!”

“We’re hired to kill bad people, ma’am. Helen Blackthorn is not a bad person.”

“That is irrelevant. You were hired to do this. What are we supposed to tell the client?!”

“I’ve already thought of that. I found someone who looks like Helen and I’ve arranged this photo.” Aline hands Jia her phone. The photo shows a woman who does actually look remarkably like Helen, laying prostrate on the floor with a very realistic looking gun wound.

Now Jia looks even more stunned. “You’re really serious about this.”

“Yes. I’m offering my resignation right now.”

“You’re…resigning. Over one assignment?”

“Yes – because I can’t justify this assignment. How could you accept it? The people we usually kill are – bad. Helen doesn’t fit into it!”

“We’re a business, Agent, and we don’t turn down business opportunities.” Jia pushes Aline’s phone back across the table, having already copied the photo onto her own. “Except for you, apparently.”

Aline picks up her phone, unable to believe that her mother is being so calm about this. Getting yelled at was par for course, but her mother actually letting her walk away from the family business? She could barely believe it. She’d been half expecting Jia to lock her inside this room without food until she agreed to take it all back.

“Thank you, Mom,” she says quietly.

Jia looks up from her phone and nods once before looking down again. It’s not much, but coming from her mother, it’s like Jia had embraced her and kissed her forehead before sending her off.

She turns around and walks out of the room and toward her new life.

“Aline,” Helen says, clearly surprised.

"Sorry for just showing up like this," Aline apologizes. "You did give me your address though, this morning before we left the hotel, and you said I could come by whenever..."

“Of course. I just wasn't expecting you so soon, but no matter. It's still a pleasant surprise. You want to come in?”

“I really do. There’s something important I have to tell you.”

“Ok. Come on in.” Helen smiles happily at her and Aline smiles back, knowing, somehow, that everything is going to be ok. 


End file.
